Secrets in the Desert
by xxPastelSTARxx
Summary: The 9th Doctor is stranded on a desert planet.  He is intrigued at the technology of the barren planet and seeks to learn more.  He meets up with a new companion and together they journey through the barren planet to the snowy peak of a broken mountain. What secrets will the Doctor uncover in his travels? Major spoilers for Journey and mild spoilers for DW 50th Anniversary.


**_Warning: Major spoilers for the game Journey and minor spoilers for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary._**

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The Doctor readjusted his worn leather jacket. He unhooked the bandolier across his shoulder and dropped it on the floor of the TARDIS. He touched the top of his head (hair was mostly gone), then his face (nose a bit big), then his ears (huge). Regeneration was a lottery after all.

The TARDIS was crackling and sparking all around him, especially where the white round things were. As he had changed, the TARDIS was going through changes as well. The Doctor walked to the front doors. He didn't want to be around while the TARDIS was still cooking and accidentally trip over a brick. He pulled open the doors and stepped outside.

The TARDIS had landed inside a small room with high ceilings. The walls were a rusted brown color, possibly made of clay. To the right and left were two, large stone plaques. Underneath them were flat metal markers, like thin, yet dull, broad swords with the pointy end sticking up. There were faded symbols along the flat edge. In front, there was a large doorway closed by a dark wooden gate, like someone built a goant gardener's fence vertically instead of horizontally.

The Doctor pressed his face against the gate, fingers clinging through the holes. Outside he could see that he was in the bottom of a deep sandy valley. Around the sides of the valley were buildings that were like tall pagodas. He was probably inside a similar building since the others had the same wooden gate doors, except for one that seemed like an archway through the mountain. There was a broken stone bridge that would have connected to the platform in the middle of the valley. The platform had two long weathered, tapestries floating wistfully in the wind.

The Doctor took a step back from the gate and looked up. The gate was made of wood, so he would have to find a solution different than his usual for locked doors. Perhaps there was a contraption around it that could open it, there's no way a big hulking gate like this could be made completely out of wood.

The metal markers caught his eye. He pulled out a thin metal pencil-like device with a small red bulb on top, his old trusty sonic screwdriver. It was just as worn as he was after being used so much during the Time War. He pointed the sonic at the metal markers and gave it a whirl. The sonic snapped and crackled, emitting small sparks that made the Doctor jump. Symbols stood out from the markers and glowed like small holograms. The Doctor examined the readings from his broken sonic screwdriver.

Those markers were graves.

He closed his eyes then bowed his head with respect for the dead as the symbols faded back into the grave markers. In the silence, he heard whispers in the wind that sounded like birds chirping in the distance.

Suddenly, a click.

His eyes snapped open and he watched in confusion as the groaning of chains and clockwork opened the gate before him. The Doctor took a cautious step outside. Someone must be nearby to open the door for him.

"Hello!" he called out, using his new voice for the first time.

He wondered if it was that "Bad Wolf Girl," then scratched his head. Who or what was "Bad Wolf?" The name felt familiar yet unknown.

He walked down the steps to the sand and called out again, "Is there anybody there?"

Still no answer.

A small red cloth flew past the Doctor's face. He jogged after the flying cloth. It flew to with two other cloths. The three danced about in a patterned loop in the air in, like a small school of flying fish. The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver, hoping it would still be in decent working order. As the sonic whirred, the red flyers stopped mid-dance, their yellow embroideries glowed, then dashed to the sound of the sonic. They circled around the sonic and caused it to lift up and dragging the Doctor along with it.

"Whoa!"

The red flyers stopped as suddenly as they started and went back to their endless loop. The Doctor floated gently back to the ground.

He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the red flyers again. They stopped mid-flight, flew to the sonic, lifted up the sonic with the Doctor hanging on tight, gently placed him down, and went back to their flying.

Sound. They were attracted to sound!

Excited, the Doctor tried to adjust settings on his sonic to see which frequencies worked best with the red flyers. The screwdriver sparked back, unwilling to change.

The Doctor smacked the device a few times, but the settings wouldn't budge. Frustrated, he turned around.

"Oh! What do we have here now?"

The Doctor saw a small platform, with more red flyers trapped in its hollowed belly by a fence that was the same design as the pagoda gates. On top of the platform was a glowing white symbol.

He ran over to the platform. He probably missed it the first time around when he was chasing the red flyer. It looked like a small pillar that had sunk into the sand over time. He began to climb the small pillar, pushing himself over the top. Before he had a chance to catch his breath, the glowing symbol dispersed into trails of white light that circled the sonic screwdriver in his hand. The lights went inside bulb and made it glow for a moment.

The Doctor tested the sonic screwdriver. It made the same noise. The settings didn't change. Nothing was different.

He hopped off the pillar and made his way towards the red flyers again. He pointed the sonic at them and he flew, but this time it was more controlled. He managed to move a few feet to the side instead of just going up and down. He looked up. Perhaps if he found more symbols, he could get enough power to fly across the larger platform to the stone archway.

Excited, the Doctor ran to the large platform. There were grave markers along the sides and broken stone steps. He climbed up the steps, walking around the midsection of the pillar. Another glowing white symbol floated on broken pieces of stone. The Doctor grinned.

"Fantastic!"

He lept across the small fault, landed clumsily on the ledge with the glowing symbol. He maintained his balance as the lights flew around him and dissappeared into the sonic screwdriver. The top of the platform was too high to climb, he had to go back around to the crushed steps he had seen in the back. He hopped back over to the other side of the ledge and made his way up the broken steps to the top of the platform.

The platform floor had the same gate pattern and held the weathered tapestries tightly. The sonic screwdriver began sparking in the Doctor's hand. He smacked it once, accidentally setting it off. The sound carried out further than usual, hitting the tapestries. A light ripped from bottom to the top. The tapestries shed their weathered look and became brightly colored red with yellow embroidery, larger versions of the little red flyers. The red tapestries dissolved away.

There was click.

The Doctor jumped out of the way as he felt the ground beneath him shake. The sounds of rusted chains being pulled and dusty cogs spinning filled the air. The gate on the floor opened, releasing dozens of little red flyers.

A great, big smile was plastered on the Doctor's face. He watched the flyers dance around in the air, so similar to fish from Earth. The floor beneath him closed. He walked to the middle of the platform and pointed the sonic driver in the air, then activated it. The swimming flyers instantly stopped in midair, swarming the Doctor. They wrapped all around him, lifting him high into the air, he could see a statue surrounded that looked like an eagle by six grave markers in front of the archway's large gate. The sonic screwdriver was still whirring, the Doctor moved his arm towards the other side to the stone archway. The flyers pushed him towards the broken part of the stone bridge before flying away. The Doctor landed gently at the edge of bridge and walked towards the stone statue, which upon closer inspection, was not an eagle at all. It was a triangular figure with sharp almond eyes.

The Doctor accidentally tapped one of the grave markers with his sonic screwdriver as he walked towards the stone figure. He did a double take when he noticed the hole in its tip glow. He brought the sonic screwdriver up to his face. The planet's inhabitants seemed obsessed with sound, but not just any sound and not just any frequency. Somehow he was lucky enough to tap into it with his sonic screwdriver. Did he dare explore more? What if it led to someplace dangerous?

Of course the answer would be to keep exploring! The Doctor pressed the button on his sonic screwdriver, letting the sound carry out to the rest of the grave markers. They all glowed white at the top. Bits of light flew from the holes to for a circle on the ground below him and soon he was engulfed in it.

The light was so strong that he had to close his eyes. When he had opened them, he was in an open space that was all white with a giant, white-cloaked figure in a white mask looming above him.

"You really like the color white don't you?"

The white figure bent down to get a closer look at the Doctor, then stood upright. It tilted its head back and let out a deep resonating chirp.

Once the sound had entered the Doctor's ears, an image instantly formed in his mind. An animated black stone carving with gold, red, and white. The Doctor saw a mountain with a split on the peak, light shot out from it. Stars formed from the light. Then the birds in the sky and forests on the ground appeared. Then, white cloaked figures appeared in the forests. Between the cloaked figures were red vines and above them were the familiar red flyers. A golden light glowed between the vines that formed the red tapestries.

White light began to spread across the image. The Doctor couldn't tell if his eyes were open or closed anymore.

The next thing he knew, he was back in the valley standing in front of the statue. The gate behind the statue opened. The Doctor heard another familiar sound nearby, overlapping with the clanking from the opening gate.

As one gate was being opened, another was being closed.

The Doctor turned around. Sure enough, the pagoda his TARDIS was parked in was now closing its wooden gates.

"Nono nono noooo!"

He jumped off the ledge and rolled in the sand. He struggled to run as his feet kept sinking into the sand. By the time he made it up the steps, the gate had latched shut. The ground beneath the TARDIS glowed white. Behind his beloved blue box, he saw a holographic image of a snowy mountain. Then with an involuntary _Vworp! Vworp!_ the TARDIS had vanished.

The Doctor stared in silent shock. What could he do now? He looked back at the statue. The archway was open, bright light shining through, giving the statue an ethereal glow.

"I guess all I can do is head towards the light..."

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And that's my first chapter! Please R&R and let me know how I can improve this story! Thank you!


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